I remember looking at the Blue Jacket depth chart Tuesday to see who was going to start in place of ECHL Goalie Steve Mason. Turns out it was career journeyman/terrible goalie/anarchist Curtis Sanford. Here’s the blurb from the game recap: “Sanford gave Columbus arguably its best goaltending performance of the season by making 26 saves in a 2-1 shootout loss to the streaking Bruins.” Yeah when I say Steve Mason sucks, I’m doing a disservice to the word suck. Don’t go crazy and add Sanford though because here’s what else the game recap said: “Curtis Sanford went two years, 10 months and seven days between starts in the NHL.” Yeah, not good…

Tuuka Rask – G (Bos): Poor Tuuka must have had flashbacks of last season when he went 11-14 despite solid ratios. Just 1 Goal allowed on 31 Shots vs Colombus yet he still had to Win in a shootout. Brutal.. You Rask owners just keep stickin needles in Tim Thomas voodoo dolls, the elderly are more susceptible.

Corey Perry – RW (Ana): Apparantly he learned from Getzlaf’s failed Goal from Wednesday night because this time the handball Goal counted. Asked about the Goal after the game Perry said: “the key is to use your chest and knee, hands always get caught…” They do indeed…

Grant Clitsome – D (CBJ): Okay so it was only the 2nd Assist on a Goal. But at this point you have to know that if Clitty does anything good in a game he’ll get mentioned..

Joe Thornton – C (SJ): I really can’t think of a more boring fantasy player than Jumbo Joe. Every year he gets drafted right where he should and every year he produces exactly what his draft position warrants. That can be good or bad depending on how you look at it…

Marc-Edouard Vlasic – D (SJ): So there are Marc-Andre’s and Marc-Edouard’s in Quebec? And since when can Edward be spelled Edouard? Bottom line is that The Pickle (man his name is filled with material) stinks so move your eyes down a finger-width and keep reading…

Montreal Canadians – Yes they lost last night but I’m bullish on this team right now. I see alot of buy-low guys. Specifically Price, Plekanec, Subban and Cammalleri… Et vous???

Rick DiPietro – G (NYI): Yes I know he came in for the injured Nabakov, but still every GM in the league who offers a Free Agent more than 6 or 7 years should be forced to study Rick DiPietro’s contract. It’s like the Islander’s are a 50 year old billionaire who married at age 48 and now hates his wife but divorce isn’t possible because there’s no pre-nup..

Ilya Bryzgalov – G (Phi): Looked solid last night against a less than stellar (to put it kindly) Coyote offense. But as all College Football analysts often regurgitate – You can only play who’s on your schedule. That’s now 6 straight games of 2 Goals Allowed or less.. chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug…

Brett Connolly – RW (TB): Nothing here yet, but this guy is worth scouting. He was the #6 overall pick in 2010’s draft and is slowly seeing more time (and some time on the Power Play). If Lightning’s (man that sounds awkward).. If Tampa Bay’s injury bug strikes (and Malone didn’t play yesterday) Connolly could quickly become fantasy relevant…

Jaroslav Halak – G (Stl): Just his 2nd Win in his last 8 starts but I’m telling you, this Blues team is different under Cockhitch… errrr…. Hitchcock. They play something called “defense” and try to buy low on Halak right now. Brian Elliott won’t last…

Martin Erat – RW (Nsh):ERRRRA….ERRRRA.. Ask not, what your country can do for you….. Okay enough. You (should) know the rest. What you may not know is that Marty “errra” Erat is a streaker. And right now he’s buck naked at mid-field.

J.S. Giguere – G (Col): He lost but looked good doing it. As long as he is up for it, he’ll be the #1 guy for the forseeable future. I’m not quite “jiggy with it” yet though, Sebastian has started 58-46-35-33 games the last 4 years. And he’s not getting any younger…

Dany Heatley – LW/RW (Min): I should not have under-estimated the offensive vortex that is Minneapolis, Minnesota. I still think Heatley will have value (him, Koivu and Setoguchi have shown flashes on the top line), but you must temper expectations at this point.

Milan Michalek – LW/RW (Ott): A Goal and an Assist yesterday and I think Michalek falls into that category of a guy who you can’t trade but you can’t trade for either.

Nikolai Khabibulin – G (Edm): I didn’t think the Bulin Wall would keep dominating like he did early on, but damn. He went his first 9 starts only allowing 9 Goals, but in his last 3 he’s allowed 11. The Bulin Wall is falling down…

Ondrej Pavelec – G (Wpg): Another good start gives him 3 in a row and if this guy was a stock I’d be buying… In fact lets get crazy: Pavelec>Corey Crawford ROS

Chris Kunitz – LW (Pit): 2 Game scoreless drought which I predict will turn into 2 Points in 11 games, give or take. That’s just what Chris Kunitz do…

Jaromir Jagr – RW (Phi): Here is what I wrote about Jagr the night he scored his 1,600th NHL Point (which also happened to be in the Flyer’s first game): “Congrats on 1,600 Points. I put the over/under on some random Lower Body Injury at 1,620 points though.” HA! I’m a genius!! And if you took the under please go to the counter with ticket in hand to collect your winnings..

I mistakenly posted this under yesterday’s post…
This is totally unrelated to the article, but still fantasy hockey relevant- Would it be possible for Razzball to post the hockey rankings in the same way they do for baseball? I could have really used a Top 100 and a breakdown of the tiers for this year’s draft. I understand that hockey is not Razzball’s bread and butter, but it would be great if you could do that for next year.

I took your advice and was actually able to trade just Spezza for Semin as he really needed help in FOW. What are your thoughts on Semin for the rest of the year? His ATOI is pretty low and is SOG seem to be low to. Is this just a really slow start or will it be another down year?

I should note that our league is a keeper league. I’ve kept Staal in the past, but perhaps not after this season. While Thornton puts up points, he isn’t getting any younger. As for Semin, yes he is talented but are we going to see the 40 goal Semin ever again? And not for a second do I even think Lupul maintains this pace, that’s why it would be difficult to turn down! Thoughts?